As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is an information handling system (IHS). An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for such systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
In an enterprise environment employing multiple IHSs, operating system (OS) installation or deployment may pose a significant issue due to the sheer number of systems. Currently, OS deployment techniques may include scripted OS installations and image-based OS installations, which may both provide forms of semi-automated installation of multiple operating systems across various IHSs. In both instances, however, there may exist several manual steps to complete OS deployment, which may give rise to inefficiencies in cost, labor, and time. For example, current methodologies may require an administrator to determine the asset inventory in the enterprise such as appropriate platforms, setting, applications, and the like. Furthermore, the administrator may need to download specific drivers from CD ROMs, online sites, and other locations for a multitude of platforms and operating systems. In addition, files used in OS deployment may need to be constantly updated in order to point to such drivers in the event of newly required drivers for new applications or updated drivers for current applications. Thus, a need exists for an automatic, out-of-band provisioning and deployment of operating systems.